Please, please, please! This would definitely be something that would give this program the upper hand against some other DDP programs and even compete with "big league" mastering programs. I'd say that this is the only feature that I feel that I'm missing from "project" and it's a little hard to live without. A simple alternative might be if you could at least let us split a song into sections (without actually turning each split into a new track). This way we could volume automate each of the sections we split within a song. For example; if we want the choruses to have more impact in a song, we could create a split at the beginning and ending of each chorus section, and reduce the volume/gain everywhere except in the choruses. I'd even be super happy with something like this :)

Why settle on volume automation? I want to be able to automate whatever, also in the projects page. Personally I would be happy with an automation lane/track locked to/per song. Don´t see much use of a global project automation lane/track.

Like mange586 I think that all FX parameters should be automatable. The best approach I can think of would be a more sophisticated event editor not only at songs (where there is one at least) but also at projects. So a song on the mastering page would be the same kind of object as an event in a song. Both could be edited with automatable fx in that event editor. So this could be done with a) a song editor at projects and song/event fx automation at both (event editor at songs, song editor at projects). Was that understandable? ;-)

Personally I don't have high hopes for this one before V4 at least....

I would buy Studio One just as a mastering DAW if it had automation in the projects page. There are hardly any OSX mastering DAWs with automation.

Would also be great to have dynamic clip gain as opposed to static clip gain. We all know the familiar problem of getting a track with a quiet verse and a huge chorus that you need to level out. And no, I will not go back to the song and automate the master fader to do this. That's ludicrous. What if I didn't mix the song...

Finally, would be great to have integration with Pro Tools. The reality is that a lot of projects are still mixed in PT. I would be so happy if Presonus could nod to this and create a feature that would monitor a PT session folder and look for new bounces and then ask if we want to update mastering session with the latest bounces from PT. This would be magical! Presonus would take the OSX mastering market by storm if they did this.

Finally, let's please have a multi-window setup for the projects page. Some of us like to spread out on multiple monitors.

Can I just add not just volume automation but we NEED plug in automation. Some people will argue that those kind of adjustments should be made in the mix which is true sometimes but there are many ways when you NEED to automate plug ins in mastering. Like say when you use FG-x even Slate himself automates the magic slider in his tutorials because sometimes it can clip on certain material. That's just one example. I have automated volume in many masters to make sure certain parts are as dynamic as they need to be. Sometimes limiting can bring up a breakdown where the rest of the band drops out, things like that.

I bought Studio One only to use for mastering and I have to give this suggestion +100. To keep mastered track exiting, you normally need to do volume and compressor threshold automation between the verses and choruses.

Also volume automation would allow my detailed fade-ins and fade-out that the predefined shapes allow you to do. Especially handy when one track continues to another without pause.